Notes: It's funny. I'm doing the beginning notes after writing the entire post. For those who haven't watch AnoHana and don't want spoilers, this is a post full of spoilers. You had yourself warned. :)
This post will serve as my personal review about the anime "Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai. I know, pretty long title, right? Shortly, this anime is called "AnoHana" but the longer version of the anime's title means "We Still Don't Know The Name Of The Flower We Saw That Day." Anyway, I watched that anime for five or six hours straight, from the first episode till the last which is the eleventh episode so maybe, I'll re-watch it again if I find enough time and revise what I'll say right now from the point of view of a person who saw it straight one time. Nevertheless, bear with this. This may sound like a rant but I just want to say what I think about AnoHana.
Let me provide you first with a very, very short summary. AnoHana is a story of six friends: Menma, Jintan, Anaru, Yukiatsu, Tsuruko and Poppo. When they were still children (like just seven years old), Menma died because of an accident. Years later, they still haven't gotten over that Menma died. And the interesting part, Menma came back like a ghost because of the will of having a wish granted. Only, she didn't know what's her wish and it somehow connects to the six of them being together again since when she died, the remaining five drifted apart.
First of all, I find it really connecting how the five of the friends - excluding Poppo since as far as I know, he isn't involved in any romantic linkage on his friends - fell in love with one another and had someone falling for them, too. Let me elaborate on this: Jintan loves Menma and Menma loves him, too. Anaru loves Jintan and Yukiatsu loves Menma (kind of obsessed, I may say). And lastly, Tsuruko also loves Yukiatsu. That's very complicated, don't you think? Jintan and Menma's love for each other isn't said at all but it was nonetheless expressed in so many ways in the anime, even when they were still kids. Anaru's love for Jintan is unrequited and no matter how she tried, it didn't disappear over time. It is very obvious and Anaru's not the best person of hiding her feelings. Same goes for Yukiatsu. His love for Menma was told but it is unrequited, too. He didn't want to talk about it or even think about it but he knows that from somewhere down in his heart, he still hasn't gotten over his feelings for Menma even after so long. I find Tsuruko's character the most interesting even though it wasn't given too much emphasis and time in the story. He loves Yukiatsu ever since the story of the six of them began and she knew, unlike Anaru, that Yukiatsu will never love her as much as he loves Menma. It was unrequited, too, but she is fine (not happy or contented, only fine) with being her on Yukiatsu's side. What's more ironic: Falling in love with your friend who is in love with another friend of yours or Loving a friend who loves you back but when you'll be together, another friend of the both of you will get hurt? Both, I think. And I like how connecting in the real life that one plot of the story is.
Because you might be finding this boring at this point because of just me ranting, let me provide you with some photos.
From left to right: Hisakawa Tetsudo "Poppo", Anjou Naruko "Anaru", Honma Meiko "Menma", Yadomi Jinta "Jintan", Tsurumi Chiriko "Tsuruko", and Mitsuyuki Atsumo, "Yukiatsu".
From left to right: Jintan, Poppo, Anaru, Menma, Yukiatsu, and Tsuruko, when they were still kids. Jintan was the leader and Poppo's always following him. This picture kind of conveys what are they feeling even back then. Jintan was oblivious of Anaru's feelings for him and won't even acknowledge his own feelings for Menma. Thus, he was always walking ahead as the leader. Anaru who loves him was next to him and Poppo following. Menma was next, looking at Jintan. I wanted to assume that as much as she loves all her friends equally as "friends", Jintan will always be different for her (like the person who you'd want to marry someday: a quote from the anime episode I don't remember the number anymore). Yukiatsu was next, following Menma and lastly was Tsuruko, following Yukiatsu. The quote: A picture tells a thousand words is really proven in here, don't you think?
Let's stop for a while with the photos. Secondly, I want to review the concept of the story. First of all in this topic I want to talk/rant about, I think the concept of friendship in anime isn't new at all, especially to an all-around otaku who has interest in like every genre of anime/manga. But what I find captivating about this anime is that it's a story of friends who drifted apart because of a particular dead girl and now the dead girl came back because of a wish. That's the part of it that captivates me. To tell you the truth, the friendship of all this six is more important for me while I was watching this anime. I wanted to see what will happen to their friendship and I found myself waiting for any development in their friendship, the six of them. The romance part is only the second point I was watching out for when I watched it.
And sadly, I really think that the anime didn't give much justice to their friendship and/or the relationship between the six of them (not just the relationship of two characters). Okay, let me explain because I know at this point I might sound confusing because when I'm ranting, I don't know anymore if I'm making any sense. Nonetheless, I'm going to explain.
I want the six of them to grow as friends, not only see them as two-by-two (again, excluding Poppo since he has no romantic linkage with any of the his friends) lovers. At the beginning of the story, I find it really exciting how a dead girl's ghost came back to life ,only, in Jintan's eyes because of, I thought, her eternal love for the Super Peace Busters. Menma loves her friends, I know. But towards the middle of the story, it didn't center anymore in their friendship. It more on concentrated in their selfish, I may say, feelings for one another.
I find it really frustrating and sad when I learned that they only want Menma out of their life because of their own selfish feelings for one another. I really don't know anymore what to feel when after the fireworks and Menma was still around, everyone knew exactly why she wasn't gone. Poppo admitted that he just want Menma out of his life because of his guilt feelings that he was one of those to be blamed why the poor girl died. Anaru admitted that she wanted Menma gone because of her ever-undying love for Jintan and she thought that if Menma was finally gone, Jintan will be able to look at her. Yukiatsu admitted (if I remember correctly here since either I'm griping tightly to my blanket or wiping harshly tears in my eyes is what I'm doing at this point) that he wanted Menma to have "peace" because he can't stand Jintan only seeing her.
Here's the scene. The moment that struck me the most in this scene was when Anaru and Tsuruko fought. I was like Oh-my-God, did she just say it? Actually, I like Anaru and I felt like I can connect to her. But when she said all loud that Tsuruko loves Yukiatsu and that they're just the same of how they wanted Menma gone forever because she wanted Yukiatsu to look at her, too, seriously, I can't describe how I hate her that particular moment. I breathed a sigh of relief when Tsuruko told Anaru her feelings for Yukiatsu. I thought that at least that time, she showed her true self to her friend. But Anaru shouting Tsuruko's feelings who by the way Tsuruko kept for like forever to Yukiatsu just like that, like that didn't even matter, like Tsuruko wanted to shout it like that, like everything will be like it was after saying it, I find myself getting angry and I find Anaru being unfair. I find her being more unfair when she kept on insisting how they're the same when even before Tsuruko countered her, I knew they're not the same. Tsuruko may be my favorite character in the series but being unbiased here, she and Anaru are really way different.
Anaru's love for Jintan is very obvious. It is visible even though she won't say it or just even after seeing her on the first episode. That's why at that moment, I love her character because it's very connecting. Girls with unrequited love can easily connect to her and it somehow reflects reality and the pain of not having your love returned.
Tsuruko, on the other hand, is reserved and calm. You almost wouldn't know her feelings for Yukiatsu if you'll not look down her core and her actions (or you'll just wait for the episode she confessed it to Anaru). Her character for me is very connecting as well. Hiding your emotions no matter how strong they are because you know nothing will change and everything will be more complicated if it will be told is a very real thing.
Yeah I know, they're same in terms of having same unrequited feelings for guys who has eyes on the same girl who by the way was dead already and simply they can't get over her. But they're so very different, too. Okay, I'm exploring the characters at this point already and it's not supposed to be time yet. I'm supposed to review the concept story first so let's head there for a moment now, okay?
So where am I back there? As I was saying, I find it really sad that they wanted Menma out of their lives for personal reason while our dear Menma who forever loves her friend came back for them and wishes to be with them like before. Isn't it really sad? I think they kind of realized it by the end and finally stopped thinking of their own freaking reasons and was finally able to send peace to Menma.
Anyway, the weak concept of the story was the poor based of why Menma came back. Let me tell you why she came back: To make Jintan cry because she promised it to Jintan's Mom when his mother was in the verge of dying. I find it really weak and it really doesn't support the idea and the concept of friends forever which I really thought initially was the plot of the anime. It was actually, by the beginning and the end of the story. It never was in the middle. For me, the middle part of the anime concentrated on their individual feelings for each other. I really don't want to complain but friendship should come first before any romance since friendship bound all of them, all six characters, not romance. It was like the characters didn't grow as a group, as Super Peace Busters. For me, it seemed like they grew as individuals who knew each other years ago before a girl in white dress died.
I really don't get another point of the story because as for what I saw, they were like seven year-old kids when Menma was still alive and thus they call themselves Super Peace Busters and even built a secret base in the forest. What I don't get is how the heck seven year-old kids knew about stuff like love and everything related to romance. What brought me here is it was revealed, too, how Menma died. Unfortunately, all of them were involved, even Menma herself. Yukiatsu, Anaru and ,I think, they even convinced Poppo to go with the flow to find out what's Jintan's real feelings for Menma (whether he likes her or not simply). Even back then, Anaru loves Jintan and Yukiatsu's in love with Menma (and with that, I am still like WTH! They're seven year-old-s, for heaven's sake. Well, love really has no age requirements. If you'll fall, you'll just fall.) So anyway, regardless of the three, Tsuruko knew it and told Menma about it. I really cried when I saw (well I was watching English subbed, by the way) Menma's reply. This isn't the real words but as much as I can remember, it's mostly like this, Tsuruko and Menma's conversation. Tsuruko: Are you okay with it? (She was telling Menma not to go to the secret base.) Menma: It's okay. I don't just love Jintan. I love you all. Seriously, I cried a bucket after that words. And even remembering that now, I still felt sad, nonetheless. Not crying but still sad especially when I learned how they wanted Menma gone because of their personal reasons. Going back, knowing everything that will happen. All went to the secret base. Anaru asked Jintan if he likes Menma. Jintan, of course, said no even though he was blushing so much. And went like, "How could anyone like an ugly..." He stopped right there and looked at Menma. She just smiled. He didn't take it anymore. He run. Menma followed him. Yukiatsu followed Menma and confessed his love for her, giving her a flower hairclip. Menma didn't know what to do at that time: continue running after Jintan or talk to Yukiatsu. After blushing at Yukiatsu's confession which she hadn't expected coming at all (since as her own mother said, she's a very light headed person), she went like: I have to run after Jintan. Let's talk about this later. And then, she ran after Jintan. Yukiatsu, left alone, threw the flower hairclip. (We learned by then that the dirty flower hairclip Tsuruko was still keeping and even using when she's alone was the one Yukiatsu intended to give Menma years ago.) To sum it all up, Menma fell into some kind of body water and died when she was running after Jintan.
We also learned that Menma initially asked only everyone except Jintan that day regarding her promise to Jintan's Mom. She thought that she didn't know how to make Jintan cry and she wanted to ask her friends about it. Of course, keeping it secret from Jintan. She never had the chance to ask because of the accident that killed her.
So she came back with only Jintan seeing her and communicating to her like a normal alive person because of that promise. That particular promise to make Jintan cry, I find a very weak concept for the story.
I've gone already too long talking about the positive points of this anime and ranting about the negative marks as well. As an ending, I'll just talk about how even after all the plot holes and need for character development still, AnoHana made me smile in the end. Honestly, at the final episode, tears wouldn't stop coming from my eyes. And seriously, the box of tissue I readied wasn't enough because of too much sadness and I don't know, maybe even happiness for having quite a closure. But at the end, let me tell you, regardless of the tears falling from my eyes, I just had a smile on my lips. A smile.
Here goes what happened on the final episode of AnoHana (with some photos to give you an idea how emotional it was):
Menma and Jintan are in the house after the fireworks which supposedly would be Menma's wish and she'd finally find her way in the heaven peacefully.
Jintan was called by the others because they "knew" my Menma was still there, with them.
Anaru admitted that she only wanted Menma gone so Jintan will be able to look at her, too.
Yukiatsu admitted that he wanted Menma to have "peace" only because he can't stand Jintan being the only one who can see her (as I've remembered).
Anaru confronting Tsuruko of how "they're just the same" and revealing Tsuruko's feelings for Yukiatsu (which I elaborated a while ago).
Tsuruko finally broke down. She said no to Anaru and told her that she knew she can't be compared to Menma. The reason she wanted Menma gone (I think) was not because if Menma will be gone, Yukiatsu will finally notice her. Her reason was if Menma was gone already, she can finally be next in line to Yukiatsu's love, next to Anaru. (That made my cry a bucket. She's still holding on to the same love of her life after so many years. After two of her friends, she was still waiting. That's sad, being a martyr for love.)
And here, we finally caught a glimpse of Poppo's emotions. He confessed that he wanted Menma have "peace" because of the guilt he has of having to see Menma drift away in the river and not being able to do something.
Finally, at last, the Super Peace Busters made peace among themselves and agreed to "make it right" this time. I personally commend Yukiatsu for forgetting everything personal between him and Jintan for a moment and calling him "Leader".
Oh for the name of love, I was crying and wailing in this part. Even thinking that Menma will be gone without having to say a proper goodbye to her friends is enough heartbreaking already. At this point, she revealed her promise to Jintan's Mom to Jintan. Because her promise/wish was finally done, she'll disappear by then.
Jintan wouldn't let that be. He said: You can't just say goodbye to me. You've got to say a proper everybody else, too.
By the time they reached the secret base, even Jintan can't see Menma anymore. He was calling her name desperately because he can't stand the fact of her being gone just after all of them reconciled.
Menma realized it and everybody else, too. So she said: Let's play hide-and-seek. Jintan desperately run all through the forest searching for Menma. (I can't believe even writing this all up made me cry already. I'm such a weak person.) Menma on the other hand pleaded for the strength to just do the thing she wanted to do last.
Finally, Menma brought them to the tree they used to play to when they were still kids. Under it were letter for each one saying why Menma loves them.
As the last seconds of Menma, all of them are able to see her clearly, quite well.
And just after completely disappearing, she smiled. As Jintan said: Even up until the end, she is smiling.
Notes: So smile, people. This post, I am consciously aware, is very long. But for those who read, thank you. On my next post, I'll talk/rant about the characters. I did a short review of Anaru and Tsuruko's here and the character review is supposed to be in this post, too. I didn't expect this to be long, honestly. So I'll be doing the character review on my next post. I'll add the "After Story" review, too, even though it was short and happened for just a few seconds by the end of the final episode. Please read it, too.
Credits: The pictures aren't mine. I found them over the Internet. All words are mine, though.
